Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 38333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Dust and flowers.
This is the only way it works. She stays in her Heaven, I live in my Hell. And as long as we abide by this one rule—this one commandment from God—do not eat the fruit…
The world still turns.
But the moment we taste it—not the sin of fuckin'. That's not the forbidden part. The moment we take more than was offered, the moment we reach for happiness in the same space—the world just spins apart. Spirals out of order like a dirt devil on the desert sands.
That night, last week, my motorcycle was outside, cooling in the night air. And even though she was the one who demanded this meeting via text, I had myself half-convinced she wouldn't come.
But she did. Hoofbeats echoed through the night, announcin' her arrival.
Moments later, Savannah appeared in the doorway, just a silhouette back lit by the moonlight. She was wearin' a white sundress, almost glowin' as she stood there in the dust. No makeup. Hair flowin’ down her shoulders. The girl from before, not the woman I left behind.
But her eyes—they burned with something that wasn't there when we were young.
She didn't speak to me, not right away. She just came inside like she always did. Though nothin' about this night was like the ones that came before.
We circled each other like wolves, neither of us willing to break first. Her bare feet made no sound on the concrete. My boots echoed with each step. The space between us felt electric, charged with everything we couldn't put into words.
"Three weeks." She broke first. "Three fucking weeks, Legion."
I didn't answer. What could I possibly say that wouldn't sound like an excuse?
"You just disappeared. No note. No call. Nothing." Her voice was loud, crackin' at the edges. "I woke up and you were gone. Like you'd never been there at all."
"Come on, Savannah." I kept my voice flat. "You know who I am. You always have."
"I knew who you were," she spit back. "Not what you'd do."
"And what did I do that was so fuckin' surprisin'?" The anger rose inside me. Hot and familiar, but out of place in the presence of Savannah Ashby. "You got what you wanted."
She scoffed at me. "I got what I wanted? How the hell do you figure?"
"You got Mercy. I don't know why you and your family are so fuckin' interested in mine, but she was the goal, wasn't she."
"I am interested in her because of you!"
"Oh, that's the part I do understand."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're just like him, ya know that? Deep down." It was a lie, I knew that. Savannah isn't nothin' like Cash. But I felt it in the moment, so I said it. "Mercy isn't just a charity project, she's your tether to me."
This made her laugh. "My tether to you? I don't need a tether to you, Legion Kane. I own you." She looked me in the eyes when she said that, serious as a fuckin' snake bite. "I own every bit of your heart. I don't have to conjure up a fake relationship with your baby sister to hold your interest. I live rent-free in your diabolical mind every moment, of every day."
She wasn't wrong.
"I saved her," Savannah stepped closer to me with her chin raised. "While you were unconscious with sepsis, Cash was filing for emergency custody. What was I supposed to do? Just hand her over?"
"You should have asked me."
"When? While you were dyin'?" Her laugh was bitter. "Or after, when you were too busy acceptin' my hospitality to take notice?"
We're close enough now that I can smell her perfume. Something expensive, with notes of vanilla and amber. It makes my chest ache.
"You wanna tame me," I told her. "You wanna undo everything I've built in my life."
"What have you built?" she snapped back. "You're a biker in an outlaw club, Legion. That's not a foundation for anything!"
I didn't take the bait. "You just wanted to fix the broken Kane kids, like we're another Ashby project."
Her eyes flashed. "That's not true."
"Isn't it? You got what you wanted. Mercy in your fancy academy. Me in your mansion. Everything nice and contained where you could manage it." I didn't have to throw in the dig at the end—but I did. "You're just like your mother."
Her self-righteous indignation reared its wild head so fast, I almost laughed.
"Like my mother?" At this point she was hissin' at me. "I wanted us safe. All of us. Together."
"But on your terms."
"Better than yours," she growled back at me. "What was your plan? Steal her away so Cash could sic the sheriff on you? Send his dogs to hunt you down? Go back to the club that didn't want either of you?"
The truth of it burns, even in the here and now. But I didn’t flinch. "You don't get to decide what's best for us."